The mobile app

The CarSignal mobile app gives your team the full system on a phone, built for hands that are already under a hood.

Home and the bar

The app opens on Home: the same dashboard as the web, with Collected for the range you pick, the change against the period before, a chart, tiles for written, sold, waiting on approval and balance due, cars by stage, what needs a hand, who is on the clock, and the last 24 hours. Brand members can switch between this location and all locations.

Appointments today sits above Money waiting: one row per visit with the time and customer, then the car, how it was booked (Online booking, Walk-in, Phone) and where it stands (Confirmed, Not confirmed yet, Arrived). Tap a row to open the car. A quiet day reads No appointments today.

The bar is Home, Vehicles, Schedule, Customers, and Menu. Your Inbox is the bell at the top right of every screen; the badge is the unread count, and the bell opens the list. Menu holds your profile, the shop switcher, Tap to Pay, preferences, and rows for the Inbox and Shop Brain. Shop Brain on the phone is the web's Shop Brain with a mic: it shares the web's conversation list (the clock icon in its header), so you can continue a chat from your desk in the bay and the other way round.

What you can do from the phone

• See the floor. The vehicles list mirrors the web board: stages, urgency, assigned techs, and filters, with the same All vs Mine toggle. The groups are Scheduled, Quoting, Awaiting approval, Awaiting parts, In repair, Ready, and Paid; picked-up cars rest at the foot of Paid for 30 days. A visit you put away with Save for later (anything with nothing approved yet, Quoting included; the row's three-dot menu; the car's own page does not offer it) leaves the list; a quiet Saved for later chip at the end of the stage chips, shown only while something is saved, lists those rows with the quote's life (Quote sent 15d ago · not opened) and a Call customer in the row menu. Bring back returns it by hand; approval, check-in or an appointment bring it back on their own, the same as the web. Delete vehicle is a swipe on the row and a row in the car's own three-dot menu: the same confirm as the web, and if approved work is on the car it asks before cancelling it. Each row says where the money stands at a glance: a green Paid chip beside the amount once the bill is paid, Due $x (the balance) while an issued bill is unpaid or partly paid, and nothing until a bill goes out. The same numbers as the car's Bill tab. Each row also says how the visit came in (Online booking · Sat 9:00 AM, Walk-in, Phone); an online booking already carries the customer's time, so its row has no Schedule button.
• See the car's appointment. One line under the car's name: the booked time (tap it to move the appointment), Requested with Book it when the customer asked for a time, Arrived Oct 24 once the car is in, or Schedule when nothing is booked. How the visit came in sits beside it. Details > Visit adds the visit's Address (the one set for this visit, else the booking's, else the customer's file for a mobile-service shop): tap it for Open in Apple Maps, Open in Google Maps (when installed), Copy or Edit, and on Home each Appointments today row shows the address under the time with a Navigate button that opens the same chooser.
• Keep notes and files with the car. The Notes & files tab holds both notes and the car's file library, the same one the web shows. Add file takes a photo or picks one from your library (JPEG, PNG, WebP, HEIC). Pictures open full screen; PDFs added on the web open in the phone's viewer. PDF upload from the phone is not available yet, and the library takes no video.
• Check in a car with the camera. Scan the license plate or VIN instead of typing it; the VIN decodes automatically. If that car is on file for another customer, the phone asks the same question as the web: check it in with the person here as this visit's contact (the car and its history stay with the owner), or make them the new owner.
• Run a job end to end. Open the RO, see the next step, order the approved parts, log progress, complete work, record a customer's no with Decline (the job moves to Declined work and stays on their profile), and fill out inspections with photos taken on the spot, marked up with arrows, circles, and labels right on the phone.
• Talk to customers. Send quotes and updates, read replies, and get push notifications for approvals, new leads, parts arrivals, and payments.
• Add a customer on the spot. The Customers tab has an add button: name is enough to start, phone or email lets you send quotes and invoices. If the person is already on file (same phone or email), you get their existing record instead of a duplicate.
• Pull up a customer. The Customers tab is the web's client list: every customer in the shop (not just the first page), each row with their phone or email, how many cars they have, when they were last in, a Business chip for companies, and a red amount when they owe money. Open one and you get the web's client record on the phone: the name, Account ID, phone and email, the figures (Lifetime, Outstanding, Vehicles, Last visit), then Overview, Balances, Vehicles, Profile and Activity. Vehicles lists every car with its plate, unit number and mileage, what has been charged on it and how many visits, or what is still owed on it in red; a tap opens the car. Removed cars sit under the garage with their history (restoring one is done on the web). Balances lists the bills owed with Record payment, store credit and the credit limit, and the payment history, each row opening the invoice. Money figures show only to people who may see money, the same rule as the web.

Who it is for

Techs live in it: their assigned jobs, inspections, and status updates never require a walk to the front desk. Owners use it to keep an eye on the floor and approve things from anywhere.

Per-tech limits from Settings → Team apply here in full: a tech restricted to assigned vehicles sees only their own cars in the app, and a tech without price access sees part names and quantities but no dollar amounts and no payment buttons.

Language. On the Menu tab, tap Language to pick English, Español, Português, 中文, Tiếng Việt, or 한국어. The whole app translates: every screen, sheet, dialog, and toast, from check-in and inspections to scheduling and payments. The setting sticks per device. The web app has the same picker (click your name bottom-left of the sidebar, then Language) covering the navigation, the Vehicles board and vehicle pages, Schedule, Quick Estimate, Outreach, Settings, and the notification panel. Money documents (Financials, invoices, quotes) and messages sent to customers always stay English.

Dark mode, High contrast, and Color filter. All three live under Preferences on the Menu tab and stick per device. Color filter has the same three options as your phone's own accessibility settings (Deuteranopia, Protanopia, Tritanopia) and shifts status colors so they stay distinct. High contrast keeps the same layout and darkens borders, small text, and status colors on every screen, including message threads. The web app has High contrast and Color filter in the menu on your name, bottom-left of the sidebar; its light or dark switch is the one button bottom-left of the sidebar, a moon while light and a sun while dark.

Updates. When a build is too old to work safely with the current system, the app shows an Update required screen with a button straight to the App Store or Play Store. This only happens for versions with known problems; day-to-day updates stay optional.

Payment-safety update: not yet published

For a final payment already collected on an unsigned invoice, recording is never blocked: the server records it as taken without a signature (with the staff member, time, amount and exact invoice version), and the receipt says no signature was collected. The app's Record without signature reasons (customer declined or unavailable) remain optional notes. Online balance payments still require the customer's signature.

The next mobile build checks which payment format the server accepts before submitting money. If that check fails, it does not submit. An interrupted payment keeps its original request for a safe retry. An unconfirmed refund sent through an older server must be checked in payment history before recording another refund; updating the app does not confirm it.

Approved work stays locked on the phone. Revise on web opens the vehicle page for a reviewed revision, keeping the original approval, bill and payments intact. An older app's reopen action is refused before it can void the invoice. Ordinary diagnosis, repair and completion updates still work.

Until this build is available and installed, use the vehicle page on the web for payments, refunds or revisions that your app cannot complete. Do not enter the same money again to get around an unconfirmed result.

Simple mode (My jobs). Technicians land on a plain list of their assigned jobs instead of the full floor: vehicle, job, when it's scheduled, the service address for mobile visits, and one big Close out button per job. Tap the card for the full vehicle when you need depth. Admins and service writers keep the full view; anyone can flip Simple mode on or off on the Me tab. Fully translated.